Sat 4th – Sat 25th August 2012

Dolly Mixture is definitely an appropriate title for this comedy show. It features a wide range of things in all shapes and sizes, all of which are distinct from each other. With dark humour and great stage presence, Anna Morris had the audience in stitches.

We meet Morris as she walks in with her big sunglasses and bag, perfectly fitting into the celeb role. However, she suddenly and unexpectedly changes to a very nervous student performing a comedy show as part of a course. This was my favourite sketch, and even though the jokes were terrible and the sketch was rigid, the hilarity of Morris playing this nervous student, always looking to teacher ‘Mr Klein’ for confidence, was comedy gold.

Each act has its own brilliant theme; from jesting the low-cost holiday packages with her ‘watership cruises’ to her fashion ‘hit or s**t’ sketch. The range of topics had something to tickle everyone. Another highlight was the feminist author and ‘celeb life-style coach’ Dr Andrea Andrew, who is striving for women to stay ‘b*tch-elors’. The audience participation was great, from getting someone to read the groom’s speech to Dr Andrew getting another member to try out her new ‘man replacements’.

Each act was broken up by a quick, intense beauty advert showing some ridiculous product. They got more and more absurd, and hats off to the person in charge of sound and tech for the great timing. Morris pushes boundaries both in these quick outbursts and in the actual sketches themselves. The cheekiness of the acts just adds to the hilarity.

Morris is adept at changing characters quickly, and with the visual help of changing props and part of costume the show stayed fast-paced, sharp and very, very funny.

All in all, Dolly Mixture is a fantastic hour of entertainment. I was not the only one to have a proper belly laugh as a result of Anna Morris and I’m sure with a performance like hers I am not the last. A great show that is different, original and absolutely hilarious.

It was pouring in Edinburgh, and my shoes were sodden just from venturing along the worn Royal Mile. Luckily, an hour in the company of Anna Morris and her collection of comic characters beckoned, and my hopes were high. Anna Morris has some impressive comedy-writing credentials and seems to be a rising star in the comedy scene, and has already visited Edinburgh as part of larger five star shows, so her solo debut looked promising.

I’d perused her string of YouTube videos beforehand, so I had some idea of what to expect – but a live show was really a whole new kettle of fish as audience interaction was a key part of Morris’ shtick - dragging audience members (however unwillingly) into her sketches with hilarious results. One sketch was a continuation from her YouTube series “Georgina’s Wedding”, in which an overbearing Bride from hell prepares for the big day – now, here in Edinburgh, Georgina’s wedding day has finally come, and Bridezilla has her own speech to make, dragging unfortunate audience members-cum-wedding guests up on stage to harangue them for ruining her wedding through backhanded, acid compliments. Similarly her sketch of being the captain of Britain’s most budget cruise ship saw her taking the audience hostage on behalf of the MOD, and regaling us with tales of how she took down Gadaffi with the magic of musicality (and a shot gun). I particularly liked her opening sketch, as an extremely nervous student completing a compulsory comedy module for the Performing Art BTEC, and whose erstwhile partner George was nowhere to be found. This could have fallen flat, with our show’s only performer standing up and announcing that this is her first Edinburgh show and she’s a wee bit nervous. However, she got the balance just right and the audience was drawn into trying to help the suffering schoolgirl as she guided us through the essential ingredients of a comedy show (“Heckling now. I am required to show that I can deal with heckling in good sport. Will someone please heckle me? Thank you very much. What was that? Yes, very good. Thank you very much”) and made repeated asides to her drama teacher in the audience asking what she should do next.

Sketches were interspersed with adverts for Dolly Cosmetics, whose brochures are filled with products such as “Eye-rections! My lashes are so long!” and “Face Socks! Because no face is the new face!”, which I found light-heartedly entertaining, if a little repetitive. Overall, I would recommend Anna Morris as a great bit of comedy – very likeable, full of energy and very, very funny. She is definitely one I’ll be watching out for again.